Chris d'Lacey's Blog, page 10

This week's word is: VOSS

Hello dragon fans.  A fairly short post this week, but an interesting one, we hope.  Keen followers of the author's tweets will have picked up on the fact that he was pleased with himself a few days ago, because he'd finished part one of THE FIRE ASCENDING.  Faithful blog followers may remember that I mentioned how the word 'Voss' had appeared on my notepad, out of the blue, not long ago.  Well, Voss turned out to be a villain.  A nasty one at that.  And the first part of the new book has been titled after him.  Of course, I'm not allowed to tell you what happens or what part Voss has to play in the saga, but I can say this: What we're doing with the seventh and last book of the series is examining, in depth, the entire history of the Chronicles.  That means going back to the time when the last twelve dragons were on the Earth.  It's pretty gripping stuff.  You have Mrs Author's word on that.  Normally, she reads a new book chapter by chapter as the author produces them.  This time, he shut himself away and wrote the whole section without chapter breaks and would only show it to her once it was done.  She read it in an hour this afternoon.  21,549 words.  She only had one comment, "Fantastic".  And you might think she's biased.  But take it from us, she's as fierce as a sibyl when it comes to criticising his work.  So everyone in Wayward Crescent is blowing smoke rings right now.  Oh, and for those of you who write in and ask why we don't make movies of the books, write no more.  This is the one.  Not signed up yet.  But stunningly filmable.  Dragons.  Unicorns.  Seers and sibyls.  Darklings.  The Fain.  Skogkatts!  Remember where you heard it first.  Until next time.  Happy reading.  Hrrr!

This week's word is: FEEDBACK

Hello dragon fans. Before we get into the main topic of the blog this week, which is to look at some of your feedback on FIRE WORLD, I should tell you that the author is feeling rather grumpy. Nothing unusual in that, of course. If he finds a spot of pigeon poo on his car he immediately morphs into Henry Bacon. And it's nothing to do with the books either. He's really rather happy with the letters you've been writing about FW. More of that in a moment. No, what got him tutting and clucking this morning was when Mrs Author tore a piece out of the newspaper about concert tickets. Apparently, people often keep the ticket stubs of concerts they have been to and some of them can be quite collectable. For instance, a stub from a 1963 Beatles concert was recently sold at auction for over £1000. Now many of you will know that The Beatles were the author's favourite band, and in 1963 when he was just … a boy he was given a ticket, by a neighbour, to see The Beatles at his home town in Leicester, England. Naturally, the author was incredibly excited. But his father wasn't. His father whipped the ticket out of his son's hand and said, "You're not going to that you'll get crushed." And that was that. Some 40+ years on, it's hard to know what rankles him the most – the fact that he didn't get to see the best band of all time, or that the unused ticket would probably have fetched considerably more at auction than the stub would have done. We think it's quite funny, really. Hrrr!
Anyway, to FIRE WORLD. He wants me to say a huge thanks to all of you who've already managed to read the book and taken the time to write to us about it. Please keep your messages coming in, because your reactions have been really interesting. By the way, it's better to send questions via the website (http://www.icefire.co.uk/) rather than Twitter because he can write more in an email if he needs to, he says. Generally, you've been enjoying the book. 'Intriguing', 'fantastic', 'phenomenal' are all words that have been used to describe the story so far (from different people). One poor reader in Australia almost walked into his door post, he was that keen to read it (hello James).  One or two of you have written in to say you really like the story but you don't understand how it relates to the other books. You will when THE FIRE ASCENDING comes out in 2012. And a couple of readers have been disappointed not to find the David, Zanna, Lucy etc. that you know and love by now. Well, we would say that they are in FIRE WORLD, just in a different form. One of the most interesting and thoughtful letters we had suggested that FW was really just a filler, but that's definitely not the case. For every book in the series, I have let the universe guide my pencil over the notepad and used my scribblings to influence the author while he's tapping at the keyboard. This time, it took us into the alternate world of Co:pern:ica instead of Earth. Have faith, dragon fans. The pencil knows what it is doing! To cheer you up, here's a picture of our hero with the book. Until next week, happy reading. Hrrr!

This week's word is: MEGAN

Hello dragon fans.  One week on from the publication of FIRE WORLD and the reaction so far has been very positive.  No one has written to the author yet to say they've read the entire book, but lots of you have read the opening chapter (click on 'Sample Chapter' above if you haven't already) and you seem to like that.  It has made one or two of you scratch your heads and ask, "Erm, is this the same David who was in DARK FIRE or is he in another universe at the same time...?"  Well, read the whole book.  I hesitate to say, 'all will become clear'.  We wouldn't be the dragons of Wayward Crescent if we made it TOO easy for you.  But the book will put it more into context.  What we're wrangling with, as usual, are the concepts of time and reality.  Albert Einstein would have been proud of us.  Hrrr.
At the end of last year, the dragons were excited to hear that a certain lady, whom we shall simply refer to by her first name, Megan, was rejoining the author's publisher, Orchard Books.  Ten years ago (eleven, actually, Gwendolen's just said) Megan was the author's editor.  She 'discovered' his first novel - the pigeon story Fly, Cherokee, Fly.  At the time, Megan was working for another publisher but left them to join Orchard, shortly before Cherokee was published.  However, clearly recognising the author's potential, she encouraged him to send her something, which he did - a squirrel story no-one else was interested in.  It was, of course, Snigger and the Nutbeast.  To be fair, Megan herself didn't think it was right to publish.  Talking squirrels, as cute as they were, were not what the publishing world was looking for.  But the author persisted.  He decided to tell the story through human eyes and set up a situation with a landlady and a lodger and squirrels in the garden.  Megan liked that a whole lot better.  But there was still some key ingredient missing.  The story needed a magical spark.  Now, what might provide that...?  Erm, HELLO!  It was around this time that the author discovered me at the 'real' Mrs Pennykettle's craft fair.  He realised it was a good idea to put us into the squirrel story, but it was Megan who suggested he let us do things.  In other words, we have Megan to thank for getting the series started.  Without her, we'd still just be lumps of attractive clay.  Megan left Orchard just before FIRE STAR was published.  But tomorrow, she's back.  (Lots of happy scales rattling here.)  Megan, has a LOT of story to catch up on, including the lovely Dragons of Wayward Crescent books, but we are all very excited to have her involved again.  Watch this space!  Happy reading.  Hrrr!

Today's word is: CHAPTER

Hello, dragon fans. It's unusual to see anything on the Notepad on a Monday, but as the author promised you yesterday, here is a sample of FIRE WORLD. Chapter One, in fact.  (Just click on 'Sample Chapter' above.)  We hope you find it suitably intriguing.  As we've said all along, it's very different from the first five books in the series (time for you all to go character spotting, hrrr!).  This book is set on the world of Co:pern:ica, which is much like Earth but with several important differences.  On Co:pern:ica, people are able to 'imagineer' or materialise objects with their thoughts.  They use their 'fain' to do this.  No one is allowed to imagineer outside the limits of the 'Grand Design', which will give you a little bit of a clue to what might be happening at the end of the chapter.  If you really want to know what's going on, of course, and how it all relates to the other books then you'll have to read the entire story.  We are assured that the book has been printed and distributed.  There are 10,000 of them out there somewhere.  So you should be able to find it in the shops, and certainly online.  When you're ready, let the author know what you think.  Happy reading.  Hrrr!

This week's word is: APOLOGY

Hi guys.  Gadzooks was supposed to be back with you this week to announce, among other things, a sample chapter from FIRE WORLD.  Sadly, we've had to delay that slightly because of a problem with publication. Some sort of gremlin (darkling?) got into the system, which meant that the book did not appear in the shops on January 6th.  I can only apologise to the people who've written to ask me why they can't find it.  As soon as we have news, we'll put up a special bulletin.  Zookie, as you can imagine, is pretty gloomy about this, but he is doing his best to keep coming up with inspiration for THE FIRE ASCENDING.  Stay glued.  You should hear something during the week. 
Posted by the author.

This week's word is: EXPOSITION

Hello dragon fans. Happy New Year, from me, the author! I hope you enjoyed my 'David Rain' photo last week. Strange to think I had that much hair once. If you're wondering where Zookie is, I've given him the weekend off. He was very keen to write a blog entry this week which pointed you to a sample chapter from FIRE WORLD. I'm sure you would have loved that, but we'll keep it till next week when the book will be just four days old. Meanwhile, I thought I'd talk to you about the series in general. I told Zookie that a lot of you had been writing in asking about the ending of DARK FIRE and how it links up to FIRE WORLD, given that we've often said how 'different' FIRE WORLD is. He doesn't like doing explanations because he follows his intuition faithfully and trusts that whatever we write together WILL make sense ultimately. But as 'ultimately' is going to come in 2012 with the publication of THE FIRE ASCENDING, I offered to set you off on the right path now. So he's blown a smoke ring and fluttered away to peel a Satsuma and challenge Gruffen to a game of Peggle. He'll be back next Sunday.
The dictionary definition of an 'exposition' is to give an explanation of something. In our case, this would be the plot lines of the books. At this stage, however, six books into the series, I would encourage all our readers to put aside the exposition of the individual stories and think of the saga as a whole. Basically, what Zookie and I have been trying to do over the past ten years is to examine where dragons might fit into the universe. We think of them as rather special creatures (Gretel assures me there's no argument about this!) who are somehow linked not just to the possible creation of the universe, but the mechanisms of it as well. This, by definition, has to include time and the rather strange 'stuff' of space that scientists call 'dark matter'. And then there is human consciousness, of course (Arthur, Liz's partner, is fascinated by this). The fact that we are able to question our existence just drives our need to understand ourselves and where exactly we came from.  Many of you will say the world was created by God, and you have every right to believe that, though clearly some people dispute it.  Physicists (like Arthur) do a splendid job of trying to unravel the nuts and bolts of life, but there are still a great many answers that elude them. This is where we, the writers, step in. It's our job to look at the biggest questions and tackle them from our unique point of view. We use our creative intuition to speculate about the mysteries of life and we often come up with some rather wild and entertaining fantasies.  For instance, if the world was created from a 'big bang', then we, the animals, the plants and the stars that inhabit our world all came out of a huge explosion.  A ball of fire.  Now, what's the one creature you've heard of that breathes fire?  Mmmm.  What writers do is take these ideas and juggle them around and say, "Hey, could this be right?"  Chances are, no. But it's interesting all the same to create a story from our intuitions.  Humans have done this since the time they learned to draw on the walls of caves.  Eventually, some of it will prove to be correct.
So, how does this relate to the books? Well, at the end of DARK FIRE, when the characters are under threat from the Shadow of Ix, David sees Gadzooks write 'SOMETIMES' on his pad and suggests to Zanna that they are about to be moved to another world. Well, that's not strictly true. This was done to help you, the fans, make the transition into FIRE WORLD, which is set in the alternative world of Co:pern:ica. David and Zanna and Liz and Lucy and all the rest of them are there, but not quite as you've met them before. The common links between the worlds are David and Gadzooks. I won't say any more than that because it would just spoil it for you. But what you have to try to do is expand your minds a little and wrap your heads around the idea that there might be other versions of us, living slightly different lives, at the same time – but elsewhere in the universe. This is one of those big mysteries some scientists like to think about.  It's a pretty hard concept for a Sunday afternoon in January, but don't worry if you can't get a hold of it.  I promise you, ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED in the last book. Just enjoy FIRE WORLD for what it is – a great story. You're going to come across a new character called Agawin. Take note of him. He's very, very important. In fact, don't tell anyone, but he narrates THE FIRE ASCENDING…
Oops. I think I've given you far too much information there. Gadzooks will probably scowl like fury when he reads it, but tough. If you're lucky enough to get FIRE WORLD on January 6th, write and tell us what you think of it. Happy reading as always. And, erm, hrrr!

This week's word is: DAVID

Hello dragon fans.  As it's Christmas, I thought I'd bring you a little treat.  You've often heard it said that David Rain, the hero of The Last Dragon Chronicles, is based on the author as a young man.  Well, here, for the first time on the notepad, is the evidence of it.  Yes, this is the author, aged about...12  Sorry! 23.  Note the 'mop' of dark brown hair, the greatcoat(!) and the, erm, flared denims.  The VERY flared denims.  The less said about them, the better.  Believe it or not, that building behind him is a library.  Not the library that features in the books, with the gardens and the squirrels etc. That was a few miles away.  But a library nonetheless.  He wants me to comment on how handsome he was as a young man ("What, when he had hair?" Gretel has just said.) but I think we'll let you lot be the judge of that.  This image, by the way, is just one of several interesting photos you can find in Mrs Author's wonderful RAIN and FIRE guidebook.  Dash out and buy it right away!  It's a very good read.  This shot was taken about a year before he met Mrs Author.  This is what she fell in lurve with, aah.  It's still one of her favourite photos of him.
Now then, I know you're all busy with presents, but don't forget that the fantastic FIRE WORLD is out on January 6th in the UK and - oh, hang on.  What's this?  Yes, very funny.  Gwendolen has just hacked into the pad and posted the picture below.  I'll give you one guess who it is?  Yes, it's me when I was a baby dragon.  Look at the cutesy eyes.  (The pad and pencil are tucked away under my wing.)  This was taken when I was still on Mrs Pennykettle's workbench in the Dragons' Den, a few days before she gave me to David.  We mature very fast!  Anyway, Gruffen has been working on a song for you.  It goes like this: "We wish you a hrrr-y Christmas.  We wish you a hrrr-y Christmas.  We wish you a hrrr-y Christmas and (wait for it) a hrrr-y New Year."  Brilliant.  They don't write them like that any more.  Have a fantastic holiday, everyone.  We're going out sledging!  Only 11 more days till FIRE WORLD.  Exciting!  Thank you for reading all my posts this year.  We're all looking forward to 2011, even if it will be the final year for the dragon books.  Gulp.  I'll keep you updated with all the info as it comes in about THE FIRE ASCENDING.  Until next time.  Happy reading.  Hrrr! 

This week's word is: SCUFFENBURY

Hello dragon fans.  'Tis the Sunday before Christmas and we have a nice surprise for you today.  Have a look at the picture below.  It may look a little odd at first, but if you cast your minds back to the end of DARK FIRE it will begin to make sense. 


Yes, this is an image of the final scene at Scuffenbury Hill.  See Alexa holding me?  David and Zanna?  Tam and Lucy?  The Shadow of Ix?  This illustration appears as a frontispiece to FIRE WORLD.  The reason it's there is because this scene is pictured on a tapestry guarded by firebirds.  Now I'm not allowed to say any more than that.  But the tapestry is what links FIRE WORLD and DARK FIRE together.  We have to thank the author's publisher for granting us permission to use it.  So thank you Orchard Books.
We also want to say a big thanks to the author's American publisher for sending us what are known as 'proofs' or 'advanced reading copies' (ARCs) of the US edition of FIRE WORLD, which comes out there in May next year.  ARCs are sent out to major retailers and reviewers etc. to encourage them to buy in the book or post reviews of it in bookselling magazines and so forth.  DON'T ask the author to send you one.  He can't.  He's not allowed to.  These are strictly for the book trade.  And they are not for sale.  As you can just about see from the scan of the back cover, there will be a video book trailer, plus all sorts of advertising and promotional stuff.  Exciting.  We'll keep you posted with developments on the notepad as always.
Nothing much else to report.  He is hard at work on the rather dramatic beginning of THE FIRE ASCENDING and we're all off to help Mrs Author put the Christmas decorations up.  We will save our proper Christmas greetings until next week.  In the meantime, happy reading.  Hrrr!

This week's word is: MILESTONES

Hello, dragon fans. We open this week with a big thank you to the author's friend, Rod Duncan. Sometime last year, I forget exactly when it was, Rod came over to Wayward Crescent to make a short promotional film of our hero talking about DARK FIRE. The whole thing was scripted and shot within the space of 24 hours and was put up on YouTube shortly afterwards. Rod mailed us a couple of days ago to say the film has now had over 10,000 viewings. Hrrr! Most of you who follow the blog will have seen it, but if you're new to the notepad and the books, here's the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ_i9Png4CA
The dragons like Rod. He's a man with vision, and one of the most underrated talents we know. He's in the middle of making a ZOMBIE movie right now (yes!) which we will flag up on the notepad as soon as it's available to be seen. Rod and the author have talked briefly about making another promotional film for FIRE WORLD. This time, rather than have the author talking straight to camera, they are keen to do something a little more…dramatic. Any dragon who has ever seen the author trying to act would probably be tightening their eye ridges hearing that. But Rod is a gifted director and if anyone can make the author watchable, it's him. It probably won't happen while Rod is still immersed in zombies (messy business), but I shall be jotting some ideas onto my pad and we might aim to film something in the second half of 2011, to coincide with the marketing campaign the author's publisher is planning for the release of the paperback edition of FIRE WORLD. Don't forget by the way it's now only TWENTY-FIVE DAYS or thereabouts before the UK hardback of FW comes out. We received some advanced copies this week and the book is STUNNING to look at. All the dragons have been pawing the copy on the kitchen table. Regular followers might be wondering why we haven't illustrated the title in red, orange and yellow as normal.  It's because the cover of the book is predominantly orange.  Originally we were thinking of having lots of 'flame' colours on the cover artwork.  But when it came in, it was clear that the orange should dominate.  From now on, that's how you'll see it on the blog. Another milestone we're close to reaching is 250 followers on my notepad. The number stands, as I write this, on 249. Come on, dragonworld. One more would be FAB. I am really delighted that so many of you follow my weekly ramblings. I have considered becoming more 'philosophical' and blogging about things other than the author's books. But I know that he regards the notepad as a little treasure trove of info for all those readers dedicated to the Chronicles. Here, after all, is where you get all the best and most important news FIRST. Where else would you come to learn that he's planning to make the opening of THE FIRE ASCENDING one HUGE chapter that might be as much as 20,000 words long. And that it will be more in the style of a regular fantasy story – at least at the beginning – telling the remarkable history of Gawain, the last true dragon on Earth. And what if I told you that at the beginning of FW is a drawing of the final scene from DARK FIRE, after the battle at Scuffenbury Hill. Hmm. There's something for you to think about. There is a very good reason for having this image, as you'll come to learn when you read FIRE WORLD. And for all those of you who've been writing to the author asking what exactly happened at the end of DARK FIRE … well, you don't have long to wait for an answer. It might not be the answer you hoped or expected (or predicted) but the link between the books is definitely there. No more clues. Until next time. Happy reading. Hrrr!

This week's word is: ED

Hello, dragon fans. As promised in last week's blog, here is a picture of the author's literary agent, fondly known as Agent Ed!! This is not a disguise. This is how he always looks. No wonder unruly publishers fear him! Ed took some time out from his busy schedule to come and speak at the author's writing group in Leicester a couple of nights ago. I can reveal that he did take off his hat and glasses, which produced an audible gasp around the room. For Ed is really no other than… no, sorry, I'm not allowed to reveal that. He also arrived at the venue in a splendid pair of green wellingtons, which sadly he changed out of before his talk began. He seemed to think shoes would give a better impression of London literary life, though we think the wellies just added to his charisma.
So what did Ed talk about? Well, all you wannabe writers would have been glued to his every word. First up, he gave a lot of sensible advice about the publishing industry and reassured us all that the book is 'not dead'. This may have been prompted by the sight of an elderly lady on the front row who was taking notes on an Apple iPad. More about her in a moment. The work of an agent is to be a kind of buffer between an author and their publisher. An agent will not only read and suggest changes to an author's manuscript (hopefully to make it more saleable) but will then make sure it is seen by all the right editors. But the work doesn't end there. Once a book is accepted for publication there is a hefty contract to be sorted out. Plus there may be overseas sales or even film rights to negotiate. An agent often handles all of that. So they are indispensable really. But getting one can be as tricky as trying to fish a coin out from the depths of the sofa with a knife blade (as I watched the author trying to do the other day – why didn't he just ask me? A dragon's tail is very versatile…) Here again there is no mystery. Many children (and adults) write in asking us how to get a book into print. And we always say, "Write the best story you possibly can and send it to a publisher – if they like it, they will buy it." In truth, a prospective author would probably be best to seek out an agent first i.e. send your story to them. If an agent likes your work, your chances of publication are far, far greater. And here is our favourite piece of advice from Agent Ed: when you've sent in your story, don't sit around waiting for the agent to respond, get on and write something new. I had to do this many times with the author at the start of his career. He all but erected a tent beside the letterbox at home while he anxiously awaited news of his early story submissions. Don't. Go back to the computer (or in my case the notepad) and WRITE.
Finally, at the end of Agent Ed's talk, there was the inevitable debate about how much of the market eBooks were going to gobble up. Enter the lady with the iPad – the oldest person in the room with the youngest piece of technology. She was quick to tell Ed how much she liked reading books on her pad. "Ah, but have you tried it in direct sunlight?" Ed said, thinking he might have highlighted a disadvantage of the electronic format. "No," said the lady, "but I can read it in the dark!" A fair point.


Happy reading (in whatever format you prefer) – and don't forget, there may only be nineteen shopping days to go before Christmas, but more importantly there are now only THIRTY-THREE days until FIRE WORLD makes its UK appearance. Hrrr!